PROJECT
MOSO Bamboo’s X-treme product was used for
the communal area’s exterior decking.
a metre a day. The MOSO bamboo species grows to about 20m tall,
and the stems reach this height in less than a year.
Thereafter they are left to mature and harden for about another four
years before they can be harvested for processing. In the bamboo
plantations the stems are marked so that the age of each stem is
known, and the mature (four to five-year-old) stems can be harvested
every year. Like other types of grass species, each bamboo plant is
made up of very many stems, and the removal or harvesting of the
older stems does not kill the plant. In fact, the harvesting of the older
stems allows more light into the bamboo forest and stimulates the
growth of the newer stems. This enables a completely sustainable
annual harvest of 20-25% of the bamboo forest.
The rapid growth rate of bamboo leads to a very high carbon
dioxide uptake by the bamboo plants, and bamboo forests absorb
or sequestrate more CO 2
per hectare per annum than even the
most dense tropical rainforests. So in fact the use of engineered
12 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2020 // www.timberiq.co.za